Education Stratification

Another great article from the New York Times, and one that hits close to home--Japan's economic recovery is causing greater disparities in wealth, perhaps bringing an end to the postwar era of middle-class egalitarianism forever. The new society of winners and losers has its roots in the vast differences in the quality of education and the exorbitant prices for cram schools. In a society which remains rooted in Confucian ideology that links prestigious education with prestigious jobs, the inability of a child's parents to pay for private school and prep courses for college entrance exams can cut deep into an individual's career choices.

I think it might be hard to conceptualize just how suffocating a vice grip education has on a child's life in Japan. As soon as a kid hits middle school, any chance of a fun social life is eradicated by the need to cram for high school entrance examinations. These exams are pretty much a one-shot deal; screwing them up can endanger entire future life's worth of causal events starting from a good high school to a good college and a good job and good marriage prospects. (I'm being slightly over-dramatic here, but you get the idea.) These cram schools can last a solid four or five hours of additional classroom drudgery, in addition to the normal school day. Advertisements for these schools freely quote statistics of the past year's cram class and where they ended up going to university. And according to the Times article, they can cost upwards of $20,000. (If your kid's lucky enough to be in private school, you'll probably dish out another $20,000 for tuition every year too.) College entrance exams are fairly similar. And in a public display of cruelty that I deplore, universities will post the serial number of each admitted testtaker on bulletin boards on campus. You have to wonder just exactly what the Japanese are trying to accomplish through education when everything is centered around tests, tests, and more tests. No wonder the Japanese economy has been floundering for the past decade--we've hit an era when individual creativity matters even more in the global marketplace than it did before.

It's about time for some serious Japanese education reform. Let these kids have a childhood, for god's sake. And putting genuine effort and real resources into leveling the playing field among young Japanese will curtail the worst effects of an increasingly stratified society and economy.